Lateral thinking puzzles

Paul Sloane's list of Classic Lateral Thinking PuzzlesCompiled by Paul Sloane, and adapted for HTML by Arlet Ottens.

Lateral thinking puzzles are often strange situations which require an explanation. They are solved through a dialogue between the quizmaster who sets the puzzle and the solver or solvers who try to figure out the answer. The puzzles as stated generally do not contain sufficient information for the solver to uncover the solution. So a key part of the process is the asking of questions. The questions can receive one of only three possible answers - yes, no or irrelevant.

When one line of enquiry reaches an end then another approach is needed, often from a completely new direction. This is where the lateral thinking comes in.

Some people find it frustrating that for any puzzle it is possible to construct various answers which fit the initial statement of the puzzle. However, for a good lateral thinking puzzle, the proper answer will be the best in the sense of the most apt and satisfying. When you hear the right answer to a good puzzle of this type you should want to kick yourself for not working it out!

This kind of puzzle teaches you to check your assumptions about any situation. You need to be open-minded, flexible and creative in your questioning and able to put lots of different clues and pieces of information together. Once you reach a viable solution you keep going in order to refine it or replace it with a better solution. This is lateral thinking!

This list contains some of the most renowned and representative lateral thinking puzzles as well as some of those which crop up most frequently on the rec.puzzles newgroup. References

The Puzzles

1. The man in the Elevator

A man lives on the tenth floor of a building. Every day he takes the elevator to go down to the ground floor to go to work or to go shopping. When he returns he takes the elevator to the seventh floor and walks up the stairs to reach his apartment on the tenth floor. He hates walking so why does he do it?

This is probably the best known and most celebrated of all lateral thinking puzzles. It is a true classic. Although there are many possible solutions which fit the initial conditions, only the canonical answer is truly satisfying. Solution

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Lateral thinking puzzles

2. The Man in the Bar

A man walks into a bar and asks the barman for a glass of water. The barman pulls out a gun and points it at the man. The man says 'Thank you' and walks out.

This puzzle has claims to be the best of the genre. It is simple in its statement, absolutely baffling and yet with a completely satisfying solution. Most people struggle very hard to solve this one yet they like the answer when they hear it or have the satisfaction of figuring it out. Solution

3. The Man who Hanged Himself

Not far from Madrid, there is a large wooden barn. The barn is completely empty except for a dead man hanging from the middle of the central rafter. The rope around his neck is ten feet long and his feet are three feet off the ground. The nearest wall is 20 feet away from the man. It is not possible to climb up the walls or along the rafters. The man hanged himself. How did he do it? Solution

4. Death in a Field

A man is lying dead in a field. Next to him there is an unopened package. There is no other creature in the field. How did he die? Solution

5. Anthony and Cleopatra

Anthony and Cleopatra are lying dead on the floor of a villa in Egypt. Nearby is a broken bowl. There is no mark on either of their bodies and they were not poisoned. How did they die? Solution

6. The Coal, Carrot and Scarf

Five pieces of coal, a carrot and a scarf are lying on the lawn. Nobody put them on the lawn but there is a perfectly logical reason why they should be there. What is it? Solution

7. Trouble with Sons

A woman had two sons who were born on the same hour of the same day of the same year. But they were not twins. How could this be so? Solution

8. Push that Car

A man pushed his car. He stopped when he reached a hotel at which point he knew he was

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Lateral thinking puzzles

bankrupt. Why? Solution

9. The Arm of the Postal Service

One day a man received a parcel in the post. Carefully packed inside was a human arm. He examined it, repacked it and then sent it on to another man. The second man also carefully examined the arm before taking it to the woods and burying it. Why did they do this?

This one probably has more variations than any other. A great one to puzzle out. It requires plenty of good questions. Solution

10. Heaven

A man died and went to Heaven. There were thousands of other people there. They were all naked and all looked as they did at the age of 21. He looked around to see if there was anyone he recognised. He saw a couple and he knew immediately that they were Adam and Eve. How did he know? Solution

11. Friday

A man rode into town on Friday. He stayed for three nights and then left on Friday. How come?

A silly one - but it is surprisingly popular. Solution

12. Manhole Covers

Why is it better to have round manhole covers than square ones?

This is logical rather than lateral, but it is a good puzzle which can be solved by lateral thinking techniques. It is supposedly used by a very well-known software company as an interview question for prospective employees. Solution

13. The Deadly Party

A man went to a party and drank some of the punch. He then left early. Everyone else at the party who drank the punch subsequently died of poisoning. Why did the man not die? Solution

14. The Deadly Dish

Two men went into a restaurant. They both ordered the same dish from the menu. After they

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Lateral thinking puzzles

tasted it, one of the men went outside the restaurant and shot himself. Why? Solution

15. The Realization

A man was walking downstairs in a building when he suddenly realized that his wife had just died. How? Solution

16. The Blind Beggar

A blind beggar had a brother who died. What relation was the blind beggar to the brother who died? (Brother is not the answer). Solution

17. The Broken Match

A man is found dead in a field. He is clutching a broken match. What happened? Solution

18. The Music Stopped

The music stopped. She died. Explain. Solution

19. Swimmer in the Forest

Deep in the forest was found the body of a man who was wearing only swimming trunks, snorkel and facemask. The nearest lake was 8 miles away and the sea was 100 miles away. How had he died?

This is supposedly based on a true incident. Does this make it an urban legend? Many urban legends can be restated as lateral thinking puzzles. This is a very good one of this type. Solution

20. The Elder Twin

One day Kerry celebrated her birthday. Two days later her older twin brother, Terry, celebrated his birthday. How come? Solution

Back to the index

to Arlet's home page

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Lateral thinking puzzles

... ``follow me,'' the wise man said, but he walked behind...

arlet@dutecai.et.tudelft.nl

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Arlet's Home Page

Arlet Ottens Programmer

Personal background:

Arlet received his Master's degree in Computer Science from the Delft University of Technology in 1992, specializing in computer languages, and compilers. His thesis describes a compiler to translate programs written in the MOSCA real time specification language into Ada. After that, he worked for 1.5 years on the CHESS Project for the Department of Electrical

Fun:

● The rec.puzzles archive! More than 1 Megabyte of puzzles and solutions. Now in HTML! ● Single Image Stereograms.

TCPL

Specification of the TCP-Light protocol.

Publications:

● Arlet Ottens, Hans Toetenel; Simulation of mosca specifications in Ada . In: J. van Katwijk, (red.); Proceedings of the Ada-Europe'92 Conference, LNCS, Springer Verlag, 1992.

● Arlet Ottens, Wilco van Hoogstraeten, Henk Corporaal; A New Flexible VHDL Simulator. In: Proceedings of the Euro-VHDL Conference, IEEE, 1994.

.

The net doesn't owe you anything. It was here before you.

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Reference Source

Reference SourcesIf you enjoy this kind of puzzle (either solving or inflicting on others) then the following books (all published by Sterling at $4.95) are recommended:

● Lateral Thinking Puzzlers by Paul Sloane 1991 ISBN 0-8069-8227-6 Contains 93 puzzles including most of the classics such as numbers 1 to 10 above.

● Challenging Lateral Thinking Puzzles by Paul Sloane and Des MacHale 1993 ISBN 0-8069-8671-9 Contains 91 puzzles including numbers 11 - 15 above and 30 Wally Test questions (sneaky catch questions).

● Great Lateral Thinking Puzzles by Paul Sloane and Des MacHale 1994 ISBN 0-8069-0553-0 Contains 93 puzzles including numbers 16 - 20 above and 20 Wally Test questions.

● Test Your Lateral Thinking IQ by Paul Sloane 1994 ISBN 0-8069-0684-7 Endeavours to teach and measure lateral thinking skills using puzzles as tests. Contains 52 puzzles.

● Improve your Lateral Thinking - Puzzles to Challenge your Mind by Paul Sloane and Des MacHale 1995 ISBN 0-8069-1374-6 Contains 115 puzzles and 20 Wally Test questions

● The above books are distributed by Cassell in the UK and by Capricorn Link in Australia. ● The following translations are also available: ● In Spanish published by Juegos &Co, Buenos Aires and Zugarto Ediciones, Madrid. Ejercicios

de Pensamiento Lateral ISBN 84-88155-04-2 Nuevos Ejercicios de Pensamiento Lateral ISBN 84-88155-21-2

● In Swedish published by Brain Books AB Mannen i hissen ISBN 91-88410-20-X De sex applena ISBN 91-88410-30-7

● In German published by BLV, Munich Denkpuzzles f•r helle K”pfe ISBN 3-405-14796-4

for further information or feedback contact PSloane@Mathsoft.com

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The rec.puzzles Archive

The rec.puzzles archive

This is the index of the rec.puzzles archive, taken from archive-request@questrel.com, and subsequently edited for HTML by me. You can browse through the puzzles, and click on the Solution link to see the solution of the puzzle.

If you're e-mailing about a particular puzzle or solution, please mention at least the puzzle's name as it appears in the page. If the puzzle is not too long, please copy and paste the question and the solution, this makes it a lot easier for me to know what you're talking about.

E-mail without a subject that says: "I think your solution is wrong, the man must be born on a wednesday" will usually be ignored.

Note

I've moved this archive over to http://rec-puzzles.org/, which will be updated more frequently.

Subjects

The rec.puzzles archive is a list of puzzles, categorized by subject area. Each puzzle includes a solution, compiled from various sources, which is supposed to be definitive. Here are the subjects:

analysis - Some math may be required ...

analogies - Water is to air, as hydraulic is to ...

arithmetic - Smart ways to count things ...

combinatorics - How many possibilities are there ...

cryptology - About famous cyphers and codes ...

decision - Some tricky choices, including Monty Hall ...

geometry - Can three houses be connected ...

games - Puzzles based on popular (board) games ...

group - How are these groups of letters defined ...

induction - Towers of Hanoi, and others ...

language - Longest words, palindromes, unusual properties ...

language equations - 3 = B. M. (S. H. T. R.!) ...

logic - Test your skills at the fork in the road ...

physics - Some puzzles for armchair physicists ...

pickover - Puzzles by Cliff Pickover ...

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The rec.puzzles Archive

probability - What is the probability that you can solve those ...

putnam tests - From the W. L. Putnam mathematical competition ...

real-life - A few real life situations ...

references - Not really puzzles, but some useful pointers ...

riddles - A set of more than 50 traditional riddles ...

series - What's the next number in this series ...

trivia - How many words do the Eskimo have for snow ...

lateral - Paul Sloane's lateral thinking puzzles ...

Situation - Jed Hartman's collection of situation puzzles

This page was first created on November 26th, 1994, and it's still under construction. Although I've edited the puzzles to make them look nice in HTML, I've only edited part of the solutions, others are still preformatted text. I'm working on them. If you find your name in one or more of the solutions, and you have a home page, let me know, so I can make the link. Other suggestions for links are welcome too.

See also the Frequently Asked Questions list for rec.puzzles.

to Arlet's home page ... ``follow me,'' the wise man said, but he walked behind...

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